Customer Reviews

The Red In The Sky Is Ours

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

everyone who has ever explored Swedish death metal has At the Gates' _Slaughter of the Soul_, or at least had a metal-loving friend play it for them. that's a bloody good metal album! and rightly considered a classic. yet surprisingly the band's most startling and unique release is their obscure debut, _the red in the sky is ours_.

first i want to say that if you have read negative reviews of this album ignore them completely. I think there is something of a cop-out in saying, as some critics have, that this is some kind of "Entombed clone" or that it's immature. At the Gates is possessed of an impetuous musical ambition of the sort usually only found in the youngest metal bands, but they have crazy chops and progressive songwriting skills beyond their age. A valid comparison would be the earlier Dark Tranquillity albums - fast and tremolo-y, with an explicit melodic focus -- but at the same time being thrashier & deathier, with more of a tech/progmetal angle, and a violin. Jespers the violinist contributes a unique quality to about half the songs, fr'example with florid solos ("The Season to Come") and lamentful leads during an ultra-melodic metal fadeout ("Windows"), and fast trills with galloping double-bass and dual guitar leads ("Neverwhere"). Very unusual, and it is implemented with faultless taste. The songs are longer on average than their later tracks, with movement-like structures, spastic time-changes, and lacking the typical metal motivic progression. The riffs are completely deranged, the dual guitar playing evil and tight, and the drumming some of the most complex and impressive in the style. it may sound incoherent at first, which is perhaps why many reviewers dislike this album when compared to their strike-n-recoil tracks on later discs. The variety is also remarkable. When you hear songs like "Claws of Laughter Dead" (sic) and "Neverwhere" you'll at times think you were hearing something like Atheist; when you hear "Within" you'll wonder why this album isn't revered in underground prog-metal circles; and when you hear the short, weird "The Scar", with its unsettling whispers and electronically processed dual guitar constructions, you'll feel a shiver pass through your flesh. The production would be dated out of context, but most of the early albums of this style sounded like this so it's basically idiomatic and suits it rather well. If you are looking for some of the best, "old style" of Gothenburg metal then don't forget to pick this up with your Dark Tranq and In Flames albums.

Everybody always raves about Slaughter of the Soul, and I guess I can see why, as I was one of those people.... but ATG's first 2 albums, once you let them sink in, are easily ATG's best 2 albums, and not only that but they are 2 of the greatest metal albums of all time. I didn't like this too much upon first listen, and while I love Slaughter of the Soul, I never considered ATG one of my favorite bands. "The Red In The Sky Is Ours" and "With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness" changed that. "The Red In The Sky Is Ours" is certainly ATG's most technical, twisted, and brutal album, but still has loads of excellently used melody and it never falls into "wankery" (bands trying to make music as complex as possible, but sacrifice SONGWRITING and end up making garbage) as it seemed to me upon first listen.

The majority of this album is based on 2 guitars weaving in and out of each other in brilliant fashion. Riffs range from melodic tremolo picking to energetic and "exciting" riffs to very odd and twisted riffs that make you go "???".... The guitar interplay is so deep on this album, there is so much to hear and will have you coming back again and again. The production is very raw and leaves the guitars very thin, but whats important is that they are clear and the production is adequate for an album which requires clarity in each guitar note. Song structures are complex and will be a challenge for the listener early on, but once they begin to settle in the music is all the more rewarding for this.... The arrangements seem so clever and limitless in comparison to the verse-chorus-verse structure of SOTS, as this makes for an unpredictable album where anything goes. Not that there's anything wrong with verse-chorus structuring, but in the end it just seems that the most satisfying music is the more adventurous music. And The Red In The Sky Is Ours is one adventurous disc. Put it on, you will be pummeled immediately by the brutal title track.... So you know what you are in for, and the rest of the album is one hell of a ride.

Favorite tracks: Within, Claws Of Laughter Dead, Neverwhere, City of Screaming Statues

"At the Gates" are mostly remembered for their final album "Slaughter of the Soul" which had an enormous impact on the swedish scene and spawned a lot of (mostly deeply inferior) immitators who unfortunately gave the term "melodic death metal" a bad name by constantly dumbing this blend of music down to happy-go-lucky singalongs. None of this rather perplexing evolution is at the fault of At the Gates of course, "Slaughter of the Soul" is a great album that was also my introduction to the band and it's still miles above the kindergarten-metal it, unintentionally spawned.

Their debut is quite different. Totally maddening upon first contact, there isn't much that will stick in your head after the final chords of "City of screaming Statues" blast out of your speaker for the first time. The band's intention clearly seemed to be pulling out a more "progressive" blend of death metal, different from most other swedish bands around that time. As if the weird structure of the songs was not enough ( there are more breaks and tempo changes in "Claws of laughter dead" alone then on the whole "Slaughter of the Soul" record), they deceided to grace their sound with the use of a violin in some spots, adding an entirely different dimension to the already quite "far out" sound on the album. This does not make for an easy listening experience, especially when you expected an album as straight forward as "Slaughter of the Soul".

"The Red in the Sky is ours" sounds almost jazzy in some places, and it takes a lot of time before you finally get used to the sound. But once you realize what the band was doing on here, it's nothing short of awsome. While not as technically able as on their later work, the band's ambitious trying of working Iron Maiden-like guitar melodies in the traditional swedish deathcore sound shines through in the brilliant "Kingdom Gone". "Neverwhere" is a masterpiece of structure, just like "Within", "Claws of laughter dead" or the hyper-blasting title track (which, after 2 minutes of total ear carnage flows right into the violin piece "The season to come").
Though limited in technical abilities, the band plays strongly together, there are almost no solos or leads on the album but still, it's a thick wall of sound despite it's abstract structure.

Frontman Tomas prooves that he's truly a poet among the writers of lyrics, and despite any concrete sense of just how to take his words, the lyrics of this album are fascinating to read (some of it was also written by Alf, one of the guitar players). He would go on writing even crazier stuff on the band's follow up "With fear I kiss the burning darkness", these swedes sure know their mushrooms. His poetry adds to the music perfectly, making "At the Gates" a real one of a kind band.

In the end, this album is not for the squimish. If you want a collection of catchy tunes in a death-metal shell, look elsewhere. If you are willing to give a record time to manifest in your head and you love your death/doom/grind/metal than run, don't walk and pick this album up before it's unaviable. You'll be rewarded with one of the best genre albums to date.

I'd heard often enough that this was the definitive ATG work (not surprising; a bands first album is often considered their best) but I wasted too much time before getting it - a shame because it is everything it is said to be and more. For those coming in from the Slaughter of the Soul end of things, this album is the complete opposite. There is less in the fast-tempo department and more room for odd rythms, turnaround patterns and weird time signatures; try tapping your foot to this! Several songs feature an extended violin break; at this time there was a full-time violinist in the band, a breath of fresh air for early 90's metal. Every song is vital and has a life of its own; if you're not yet an At the Gates fan, this is a great place to start.

Though At the Gates would eventually gain their fame watering down and mainstreaming death metal, a mere three years early they were at the vanguard of progressively-minded bands bent on expanding the boundaries of the genre. While their countrymen Entombed, Dismember and Unleashed emphasized a brute, relatively simplistic beatdown, AtG's debut "The Red in the Sky is Ours" is a lithe, sophisticated and melodic piece of technically-adept death metal that suggests the Florida prog-death scene far more than the buzzsaw sounds of Sweden. While critics will invariably describe "Red" as "immature," others will say AtG possessed a skill and ambition beyond either their individual ages or that of the youthful genre. Innovative though it is "Red" is not an album that was ahead of its time, but rather one that predicted an alternate future, where "melodic death metal" meant sophisticated DM with a strong melodic element, rather than the power-thrash with growled vocals that dominated the Gothenburg scene in the late 90s. It's a tragedy that both AtG and the subgenre as a whole took a different path (which isn't to say that all or even most melodeath is bad), but with "Red" we have a glimpse into what might've been, and a terrific, immensely enjoyable album.

Though many have complained about the production, the relatively distant, bass-light sound allows the elaborate guitarwork to shine through in one of the finest dual guitar performances in all of death metal. Svensson and Bjorler display a remarkably intuitive interplay, moving from lockstep riffing to simple harmonies to elaborate counterpoint and back with astonishing ease. Varied though they can be, the duo are quite adept a pure riff monsters, as in the title track and "Night Comes, Blood Black" the ferocious bookends of the original material. While their work is not as overtly technical as much later, conventional tech-death, their material is sufficiently elaborate and precise for most guitar geeks, and they display a melodic sense unparalleled in later tech death. (See the gorgeous harmonies and melodies of "Windows" and "Through Gardens of Grief" and other tracks, with an assist to Jesper's surprising but always effective violin.) The rhythm section is less well represented, particularly the largely inaudible bass, but Erlandsson's drums add rhythmic punch to the album, and they all ably navigate the complicated rhythms. (See "Night Comes, Blood Black" for probably the toughest, shiftiest rhythms on the album.)

Individually strong performances don't mean much unless the pieces build to something larger, and here AtG consistently succeed once again. "Red" is a remarkably consistent release for a debut, and even the weaker tracks ("Claws of Laughter Dead" and "Within") are more than worth the listener's time. Most significantly, AtG find that rare balance between technicality and memorability that makes the tracks rewarding both immediately and on careful listen. All this culminates in some truly masterful compositions, particularly the explosively dynamic and melodic "Neverwhere" (the album's masterpiece) and "Kingdom Gone," both of which throw a few nice vocal hooks into the mix. (Moreover, AtG briefly step out of the DM norm with the remarkably beautiful interlude "The Scar," a rare example of the brief interlude that is absolutely worth listening to.)

All in all, "The Red in the Sky is Ours" is one of the most underappreciated death metal albums ever recorded. Melodeath fans may not care for the album's oft inscrutable nature, while tech-heads may well have written off AtG as an enjoyable but hardly remarkable band after hearing "Slaughter of the Soul." Don't make this mistake, or you'll be missing one of the most unique and enjoyable tech-death albums around.

its a must have. Don't skip this one just because allmusic.com gave it a bad review.
As seen with the debut albums (Soulside Journey,The Somberlain,Lunar Strain,Skydancer, and Orchid just to name a few) from other Skandinavisch Metal bands.
You have to own it and listen to it. Have to. Not having this album would be like listening to Metallica and not having Kill Em' All.

At The Gates is a highly influential band that's basically looked up to by 80% of melodic metal bands nowadays. However, there is more to this band than just "Slaughter Of The Soul". And this will be an insight to their very first full-length, "The Red In The Sky Is Ours".

Released in 1992, this was when At The Gates were a different band from a few years following after. This CD is more dark, technical and brutal than the rest of their works. They laced more death metal into their sound at this time. The CD has insane riffs and melodic leads, and the tempos really make it stand out. Drums are excellent here, especially in "The Red In The Sky Is Ours". It is a real blistering album that deserves to be heard and not to be missed.

First of all, I must note that I own the cassette version of this, so have not been able to listen to the final track.

That being said, the rest of this album is quite marvelous, particularly in its feeling of destitution and decay.

When I listen to this album I get the feeling of a group of destitute swedes making the most beautiful, yet dark music they can.

This album is not about catchy guitar melodies or technical prowess. It's pure emotion. I would recommend it for anyone looking to hear something other than the overly polished fare that NWSDM has become.

This is pure underground/cult stuff!

The reason I won't give it 5 stars, however, is because I need an album to be absolutely masterful (i.e. perfect) to be as such.
I was a little dissappointed that my copy did not come with lyrics, althoguh the rest of the booklet looks great.
Perhaps the CD version comes with lyrics though.

...marred by really bad production values. Don't get me wrong, I don't EXPECT a metal band in the early 90's to be able to put out a metallica-quality big-budget production. However, that said, in metal the focus is the guitars, and using a mic placement that makes the guitars sound like they were recorded by a bootstrap sony micro tape player MISSES THE POINT. Turns them into little tin-canny things, when they're supposed to be BIG. If these bands went to play live with their guitars sounding like they do on their albums, they'd be laughed off the stage. I have no idea why so many of the early bands in sweden had this lo-fi sound. I know that in black metal it was largely deliberate. Personally I think its because these bands recorded themselves, and instead of finding a friend who was an engineer, they got their other guitar buddy to be an engineer. Guitarists and engineers are natural enemies. Getting a good and big guitar tone isn't hard and can be done with crappy radio shack mics.

That said the only other real beef I have with pre-slaughter At the Gates is the vocals. Dry bed of nails down the ears. Raw, and not elegant. Terminal Spirit Disease is where they found their sound however, and both this and their other album "With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness" are amazing explorations in ATG finding out who they were as musicians. But know that they both suffer from a terminal lack of even rudimentary engineering that you can get from a $10 book and takes maybe a day for a neophyte to apply.

That said I agree with everything else the other reviewers said, but they only get 4 stars because of laziness in their recording technique.

This is great metal in the Swedish early 1990s scene.
Lots tremolo picking, depressive melodies and odd tempo changes, plus full time violin player. And of course ultra depressive screaming, which creates really depressive atmosphere!
This album definetely underrated, and should get more exposure!
Metalheads get it!